ohmidog!

For the first time in more than 40 years, the BBC will not televise Britain’s biggest dog show.

BBC officials said Friday that the network had suspended coverage of the 2009 Crufts show “pending further investigations into the health and well-being of pedigree dogs in the U.K.”

Crufts organizers accused the BBC of making “unreasonable demands” that it exclude certain breeds of dog from the show.

The Kennel Club, the show’s organizer, and the BBC have been at odds since September when the BBC aired a documentary claiming decades of inbreeding had led to serious health problems in some pedigree dogs.

The show will take place as scheduled in March, but, because Crufts organizers would not comply with the BBC’s request for particular breeds to be excluded from the show, it won’t be shown on BBC.

“We are unable to agree to these demands, as it would compromise both contractual obligations and our general responsibility to dog exhibitors and our audience and we believe it would be inappropriate and counterproductive to exclude any recognized breed from Crufts,” he said.

The dispute centers around at least 12 breeds that the Kennel Club has identified to be “at risk”.

The Kennel Club was featured in a BBC documentary, “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” which claimed many pedigree dogs suffered from serious congenital issues because owners selectively bred them for looks.

Cavalier spaniels, for instance, were shown to have brains too big for their skulls –  not because breeders have made their brains bigger, but because they’ve made their skulls smaller.

The Kennel Club has complained that the show was unfairly edited and did not properly reflect its “deep commitment to the health and welfare of dogs,” or the steps it has taken to improve the health of pedigree dogs.

Here is the list of breeds involved in the dispute:

Basset hound
Clumber spaniel
Dogue de Bordeaux
Mastiff
Neopolitan mastiff
Pekingese
Rottweiler
Shar pei
St Bernard
Chow chow
German shepherd
Bulldog
Rhodesian ridgeback
Cavalier spaniel

To see a clip from the documentary, click here.